Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen

Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen was a Salafi jihadist militant group in Yemen which was founded in 2011 as an al-Qaeda affiliate. Unlike al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, however, it was not focused on terrorist attacks, but instead on an insurgency. In 2011, the group took over some cities in southern Yemen and instated emirates, and AQAP and Ansar al-Sharia allied against the Houthis during the Yemeni Civil War. The group came to have over 3,000 fighters, but several of them defected to the Islamic State during the war.